if that's the case I would do CT. Weird that you call that your "niche" as anybody else would consider that generalist/standard M&A background stuff but to your point not as commodified as looking at IT contracts all day

Fair point. As a general corp/m&a guy we are the QB etc. And yeah idk what CC would be entirely--probably some IT contracts, procurement, some other high volume stuff specific to the business, etc. But who cares if it pays more and presumably has more regular hours anyway?

$15k gross. Honestly, I'm a deal guy and would want to elbow my way in to that group eventually. But...after years of being a deal guy, it also sounds nice to work a 9 to 5 doing commodity work...and if I want to do deals, hopefully people would let me based on the law firm experience

From the interviews. Both of them are way more chill than law firm m&a, but the deals job has some international stuff so I'd expect poorly timed calls at least occasionally. On the CC job, it was clear that the CT people would sometimes do night calls from home etc while the CC people just told me what time they liked to show up and leave (and didn't work from home).

Is CC job A? If that's the case, I'd go job B. CC is boring and low level routine contracts even if they cover various areas. When I read generalist, I thought you meant all legal matters from all contracts and transactions to tax to employment to ERISA to litigation to financial audit etc.

Yes--job A is CC. Ty again--I should have been clearer. It does sound like there would be some ability to gain institutional knowledge about the org, but it does sound more boring and low-level. But maybe all the gaining skills and rigor is flame and I should just take the money and the better hours

You will gain far more knowledge about your company doing deals as you're dealing with valuations, business strategy etc than looking at contracts for cyber security vendors or whatever other contracts come through. $15k is not much.

shit that makes it a tough call as you'll likely have way more autonomy with CC, being in the drivers seat. IME, product, marketing, etc will defer to legal as the final word. You can check out and coast doing easy work with little oversight-- but it's boring.

With CT, the work is more varied and negotiated whole cloth but the downside is that BD guys tend to be more invested in making the deal happen at any cost so they can rattle off achievements at their next review and accordingly treat legal as scribes.

A rough rule of thumb is that every title in a smaller department/at a company with an order of magnitude less revenue is a step higher than at a bigger company/department. Advancement inhouse is at least 50% luck and battlefield attrition, but if you're regarded as a top performer they will find a way to make it happen for you. If you're not in the top 20% but are in the top 50% of the GC staff's stack ranking you're essentially waiting for a battlefield promotion, which can happen because your boss is a rock star and they want to find a way to promote your boss. If you're in the bottom 50% you have to get a battlefield promotion and avoid management trying to snake it from you to give to someone they like better. If you're in the bottom 20% every year you'll eventually get fired.

If you want the widest variety of options open to you for another job or promotion internally, you need to basically understand every aspect of the business, not just a specialized area. A generalist means you're not really providing legal expertise on one area but rather helping manage and run all the legal aspects of the business. This makes you harder to replace, since your institutional knowledge is deeper than someone specialized. Also, go to a smaller company with fewer lawyers. Private companies over public. Fewer lawyers = more chance to get better experience. Titles do not matter. Better experience make you more valuable in the long run for both internal promotions and outside jobs.

mean looking motherfucker next to you at the bar: parole officer's riding my ass cause i just got fired for failing a drug test. the womans freaking out over child support and now this asshole's telling me I need a new transmission. you?

you: flat structures and unclear advancement opportunities

mean looking motherfucker next to you at the bar: geez, pal. i thought i had it bad.

What's your goal? Can you expand your duties (i.e., be able to take on new areas)? Which company has a better name? Which boss would ypu prefer to work for?

I started as a fund attorney but now work in a different area of the financial world and my boss and company are paying for me to attend cybersecurity seminars bc I expressed an interest and my boss is a great rabbi. Take the job where the boss or company has an interest in your development. Although, it is more about who is your boss than which company you work for.